A TIMELINE OF KEY EVENTS CIVIL RIGHTS A TIMELINE OF KEY EVENTS

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How did the United States come from a country of slavery to a nation of full legal equality and civil rights? 4. Cite specific textual and visual evidence to analyze the major events, personalities, tactics, and effects of the Civil Rights Movement. A. Assess the effects of President Truman’s decision to desegregate the United States armed forces, and the legal attacks on segregation by the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall, the United States Supreme Court decisions in the cases of Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher and George McLaurin, and the differences between de jure and de factosegregation. B. Compare and contrast segregation policies of “separate but equal,” disenfranchisement of African Americans through poll taxes, literacy tests, and violence; and the sustained attempts to dismantle segregation including the Brown v. Board of Educationdecision, Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School, the Oklahoma City lunch counter sit-ins led by Clara Luper, the Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, the Birmingham church bombing, the adoption of the 24th Amendment, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Selma to Montgomery marches, and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. C. Compare and contrast the view points and the contributions of civil rightsleaders and organizations linking them to events of the movement including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his I Have a Dream speech, Malcolm X, NAACP, SCLC, CORE, SNCC, and the tactics used at different times including civil disobedience, non-violent resistance, sit-ins, boycotts, marches, and voter registration drives

CIVIL WAR Amendments 13th: 1865 abolished slavery 14th: 1868 established citizenship and due process 15th: 1870 universal male suffrage

Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 US Supreme Court legalizes segregation in the United States “SEPARATE BUT EQUAL”

Early Civil Rights Leaders W.E.B. DuBois—pushed for immediate civil rights and equality. Leader of NAACP Booker T. Washington founder of Tuskegee Institute.

1909 NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People est’d.

1948 Pres. Truman integrates the military

1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas Supreme Court rules “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”. Ends school segregation.

1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus. A boycott follows, leading to desegregation.

1957 Central High School Little Rock, Arkansas “The Little Rock Nine” Pres. Eisenhower sends federal troops after Arkansas governor Orval Faubus uses the National Guard to deny entrance to African-American students at Central High.

1958 Sit-ins in Oklahoma City As a sponsor of the Oklahoma City chapter of the NAACP youth council to organize the first sit-ins in the nation at Katz Drug Store’s lunch counter in OKC.

1960 Sit-ins College students in Greensboro, NC stage sit-ins at the Woolworth’s lunch counter

1961 Freedom Rides Volunteers, black and white, take buses into the South to test new desegregation laws, often meeting with violence

Freedom rides http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHaXo6N_vh8

1962 Univ. of Mississippi Pres. Kennedy sends 5000 federal troops to Mississippi to allow James Meredith, the school’s 1st African-American student, to attend.

1963 Birmingham, AL Martin Luther King and the SCLC focus on segregation in Birmingham. Protests there end in violence, riots, and arrests of adults and children.

Aug 1963 March on Washington 200,000 people hear Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington.

Stand in the Schoolhouse Door Gov. George Wallace promises “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” Refuses to desegregate Univ. of Alabama Stands aside only after being confronted by federal marshals and the Alabama National Guard.

1963 Bombing in Birmingham 16th St. Baptist Church, a bomb explodes on a Sunday morning, killing four young girls. KKK member seen planting bomb, is arrested, but found guilty of possessing dynamite without a permit. Fined $100 and six months in jail.

1964 24th Amendment Outlawed poll tax. Black voter registration begins to increase.

1964 Civil Rights Act Outlaws discrimination based on race.

1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Civil rights activists attempt to register African-Americans to vote

1965 Selma March Demanding voting rights, 600 protesters plan to march to Montgomery. 6 blocks into march, they meet state troopers armed with nightsticks and tear gas.

SELMA, ALABAMA 1965

1965 Voting Rights Act In the aftermath of Selma, Pres. Johnson calls for passage of a voting rights bill. Outlaws literacy tests, established federal oversight of the voting process.

Protests—different views KING: Non-violent, passive resistance Influenced by Ghandi Black Power: proactive, militant, focus on black pride and African heritage. Term popularized by Stokely Carmichael of SNCC

1965 Malcolm X assassinated Born Malcolm Little, he learned the ideas of black pride and self-reliance from his father, a follower of Marcus Garvey and member of the UNIA. While in prison, he converted to Islam and joined the Nation of Islam. Upon release, he changed his name; the X represented the African heritage he would never know. He preached the superiority of blacks and separation from whites; he scorned King’s non-violence saying black people should use any means to protect themselves. Between 1952 and 1963, the Nation of Islam grew from 500 members to 25,000.

Malcolm X In 1964, Malcolm X made a pilgrimage to Mecca. After seeing Muslims of different races treating each other as equals, his views changed. At a meeting in Feb. 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated by two members of the Nation of Islam, although imprisoned for their crime, proclaimed their innocence.

1965-67 Urban Race Riots – a call for economic rights Watts (Los Angeles), Detroit, Newark

1968 Martin Luther King, Jr assassinated Memphis, TN, King is shot by James Earl Ray. He was 39 years old.

Civil Rights Today Do we face civil rights issues today? Are we a desegregated, equal society? Are there other groups dealing with civil rights questions today?